Jimmy Iovine Talks About What Made Him Leave the Music Industry (Video)

Jimmy Iovine Talks About What Made Him Leave the Music Industry (Video)

Ahead of his documentary series The Defiant Ones bowing on HBO soon, former record exec and one of the minds behind Beats by Dre Jimmy Iovine stopped by the OTHERTone show on Beats 1 radio with Pharrell and Scott Vener to talk about a variety of topics. Perhaps the most interesting part of that discussion was about technology and not only how it relates to his own career change, but to the music business at large.

Iovine explained that, when he met Steve Jobs, that’s when he knew he had to jump ship from the record industry. He claims that, as a whole, the music business has still not embraced technology and, in the early 2000’s, they were still in the thick of fighting the war against Napster and online piracy – a struggle that cost the industry millions upon millions of dollars. As a result, Iovine concludes that artists now get deals they deserve and that they wouldn’t have been able to nab even 10 years ago. In his mind, artists have all the leverage because of avenues like YouTube and Soundcloud that leave labels and management organizations scrambling to capitalize on some of the buzz that’s being generated. (Via Hotnewhiphop)